(Corrects when Gillard got her law degree in 23rd paragraph
in story originally published on June 25. For more on
Australia’s leadership change, see {EXT5 <GO>}.)

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Julia Gillard began her job as
Australia’s first female prime minister by promising to smooth
relations with mining, its biggest industry.

The 48-year-old Wales-born lawyer took office yesterday
after ousting Kevin Rudd, whose slump in opinion polls
threatened to make their Labor Party the nation’s first one-term
government in 80 years. Rudd stepped down rather than face a
party vote.

Gillard moved to fix two of Rudd’s most unpopular decisions
by revisiting the carbon-trading system he shelved in April and
agreeing to open negotiations with the mining industry on a
proposed tax increase that sparked widespread protests among
companies, workers and politicians, including members of Rudd’s
own party.

“The change of leadership will mark a major change in the
management style of the government,” said Paul Brennan, senior
economist at Citigroup Inc. in Sydney. “The change of
leadership may increase the government’s chances of being re-elected.”

Gillard said she met earlier today with Treasurer Wayne
Swan and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to discuss tactics
to negotiate with mining companies over the tax.

“My priority is to deal with the mining tax, it has caused
uncertainty and that uncertainty has caused anxiety,” she told
reporters in Canberra today. “I want to make sure Australians
get a fair share of our mineral wealth, but I want to genuinely
negotiate.”

Gillard’s ascension to the nation’s top job was welcomed by
BHP Billiton Ltd., Rio Tinto Group and Fortescue Metals Group
Ltd., which had led the fight against the 40 percent tax that
Morgan Stanley estimates would have taken A$85 billion ($74
billion) from the mining industry during the next decade.

Melbourne-based BHP, the world’s biggest mining company,
said in a statement it was “encouraged” by the appointment and
will suspend its advertising against the proposed tax.

Open Doors

“Gillard has launched her leadership with a conciliatory
tone toward the mining industry,” said Roland Randall, vice
president of research and strategy at TD Securities in Singapore.
“As a new leader, she can compromise without loss of face.”

Gillard yesterday said that she will call an election
within the coming months, “throw open” her doors to talks with
mining companies and make climate change a central plank of her
election platform.

“It is as disappointing to me as it is to millions of
Australians that we don’t have a price on carbon,” she said.
“If elected as prime minister I will re-prosecute the case for
a carbon price.”

Parliamentary Career

Gillard’s political career got off to a stuttering start.
After failing in three attempts to win Labor endorsement to
stand for parliament, she took a job as chief of staff to
Victorian state opposition leader John Brumby.

She finally won endorsement for the Labor Party in 1998,
winning the Melbourne seat of Lalor. In opposition, she served
as the party’s spokeswoman on health, squaring off against the
Liberal Party’s Tony Abbott.

Now, the two will face each other in the coming election.
The 52-year-old Abbott, a former Rhodes scholar and priest
trainee, was elected leader of the Liberal Party in December,
after overthrowing Malcolm Turnbull.

When Rudd, 52, ran for the Labor leadership in 2006, he
enlisted Gillard as his deputy. The pair led Labor to a
landslide victory in November 2007, ending John Howard’s almost
12 years in power.

Gillard, who was sworn in by Australia’s first female
Governor General Quentin Bryce, joins powerful female
politicians such as New South Wales state premier Kristina
Keneally, Queensland state leader Anna Bligh and deputy
opposition leader Julie Bishop.

Feet on the Floor

“I’m aware I’m the first woman to sit in this role but I
didn’t set out to crash my head against any glass ceilings,”
she said yesterday. “I keep my feet on the floor.”

Gillard said she grew up in a “hard-working family” that
taught her people should be rewarded for their efforts. And she
restated her goal that every child should be able to access a
quality education, a pledge included in her maiden speech to
parliament in 1998.

Her parents, John and Moira, who moved to Australia in
1966 to escape the cold Welsh winters that frequently left their
four-year-old daughter with bronchial pneumonia, watched from
their home in Adelaide as Gillard was sworn in as Australia’s
27th prime minister.

“When I see Julia we’ll probably both cuddle and probably
shed a tear or two, we are very proud,” her father said in a
phone interview yesterday.

School Cheers

About 100 children at Adelaide’s Unley High School Resource
Center cheered as they watched the swearing-in. Gillard
graduated in 1978 with an A for Chemistry and English and B+ for
Physics, Economics and Mathematics, principal Susan Cameron said
as she read from Gillard’s report card.

“She studied hard and the students were gripped by the
coverage of this exciting day,” Cameron said in an interview.

Gillard attended the University of Adelaide then
transferred to Melbourne University where she got her law degree
in 1987 followed by an arts degree in 1990. She then joined law
firm Slater & Gordon in Werribee, Victoria, practicing
industrial law. The firm now has a meeting room named after her
in its Melbourne office.

“She argued with the same charm and humor we see in her
style today,” said Carol Johnson, who was in student politics
with Gillard at Adelaide. “We knew she’d go far but we didn’t
think she’d go this far this quickly.”

Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, a hair stylist who works
on her flame-red bob, congratulated Gillard yesterday with a hug
and a kiss as she was sworn in at Government House.

Gillard has had to fight criticism she wasn’t qualified to
be a leader because she didn’t have children. Liberal Senator
Bill Heffernan had to apologize for saying in May 2007 that
Gillard was unfit to be deputy prime minister because she was
“deliberately barren.”

“You’re either working at this intense high level or
you’re having kids,” Gillard responded in an interview then
with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.